July 2017 and the Dreaming Spires have just finished their set on the main stage at Truck Festival, set on a large farm in Oxfordshire. On their way back to their recording studio located in one of the farm outbuildings, the band took a little time out to pose for some portraits in a makeshift space I created next to the studio.
Shot with Fuji XT1 XF16-55 F2.8R
In a recent Americana album review of 2017, a magazine cited that the majority of the Editor’s favourite albums of the year were made by women. This supports a growing trend which is encouraging and also backs up Steve Earle’s statement in a recent Guardian interview, in which he said “The best stuff coming out of Nashville is made by women”.
Traditional photographic printing processes such as cyanotypes, daguerreotypes, tintypes and other wet plate methods have always interested me. It's partly due to the history behind the methods but also the look and feel of the finished artwork, and of course the art, craft and effort that goes into each masterpiece. Each image is a unique one-off.
About five years ago the people behind the highly entertaining Channel 4 TV series - The Black Cab Sessions, made an offshoot tv show which travelled to the USA to visit several cities that have had a significant impact on modern music. The producers shipped out a London black cab and crew, and drove around the country visiting these cities, picking up notable musical talent along the way for interviews and sessions in the back of the cab. It was a novel idea and made for good informative entertainment.
It was a pretty scene and one I thought worthy of exploring and taking a few photographs. So I reversed the car and parked it at the side of the road nearby some tracks that lead to a deserted farm outbuilding. There wasn't a soul about but the birds were singing aptly around me despite the large birds of prey that I saw frequently high in the sky.
